Sixth Post

I have started the nest book in the installment (yes I know I am really lame), and so far it’s even more eventful than the first. At the beginning of the novel, the author’s oldest brother comes home from Catholic Private School in Salt Lake City. When he hears about “The Great Brain’s Reformation,” he laughs and tells J.D. (the author), that Tom is just fooling their parents in order to get a bike for Christmas. Then times passes quickly until summer vacation, when Swen comes back from Salt Lake City Again, and boy is everybody in for a surprise. He begins to talk with odd expressions that according to him are “popular with us city folk.” When Tom gets sick of being called old man by his brother, he begins to call him grandpa, which everybody gets a kick out of. In response, S.D. begins to call him little school boy kid, which irritates Tom. He asks his father if he can start to work at his newspaper company as a printer, but his father claims he’s too young. Tom then asks for his father’s old, unused printing press, and begins his own paper. This paper, The Adenville Post, is based almost solely on gossip (which he thinks is good news). Though he and his teem of reporters manage to uncover the bank robbers who had recently stolen one-hundred-thousand dollars from the bank, his father is disgusted with the gossip portion of The Adenville Post, and punishes T.D. severely, as well as tells him: “it [the newspaper] showed mw that you are too young to do anything at the Advocate other than deliver papers.” This book also contains moral issues, like publishing private affairs, such as arguments that spouses are having with each other.

More Adventures of The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald

Fifth Post

I know this is another late post, but late slip to the rescue Mrs. B so if your not here today, then you know. Once again, I finished my book, and with lack of a better option, I chose to read the Great Brain series over again (I know it’s kind of ridiculous, but they’re nice to read late when I can’t concentrate). This series is sort of a biography of the author’s brother as a kid then a teenager. It takes place in Adenville, Washington, a few hours train ride from Salt Lake City. The author, John, is about 8 at the time of the first book and his brother, Tom, is 10. Tom is known in town for his “great brain” which he uses for varied purposes. For example many times he used it to swindle people out of money, but there are a few times when he “saves the day” by finding lost kids or something to that effect. This book was once again, riddled with moral and ethical issues. Pretty much every time that Tom or T.D. (Tom Dennis) swindles somebody, he gets caught by his mom, and is forced to return all of his money. However, there was a time when a kid in town who had recently had his leg amputated was feeling useless and suicidal. Tom helped him learn how to play games, fight and do all his chores again. In return the boy, Andy, was going to give him his brand new erector set (the Andy’s parents were okay with this because Tom had essentially saved their sons life). Then, Tom declines the set and gives back his brother, J.D. his Indian Belt that he swindled out of him earlier.

The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald

Annotations

Question:
Should the United States have the right to invade people's privacy for "national security" purposes?

Staff and Agencies. “FBI abused PATRIOT Act powers, audit finds.” The Guardian 9 March
2007. 9 March 2007.
This article is about the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 or the USA PATRIOT Act. Specifically, it is about the audit that was conducted of the FBI in 2007 to investigate if their usage of the Act was legitimate and legal. They found over 1000 times when the FBI overstepped their boundaries outlined in the USA PATRIOT Act. For example, the justice department found that the FBI not only overstepped the boundaries outlined in the PATRIOT Act, they sometimes obtained information, such as phone calls, when it wasn’t necessary. Also, the article points out that the FBI uses the PATRIOT Act as an excuse to send out more national security letters: they sent out 8,500; 39,000; 56,000; 47,000 in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2005 respectively. These letters have been controvertible since 2001 because of their “loose” use.

Lichtblau, Eric. “U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling.” 28 Sept
2003.
Eric Lichtblau has been a reporter the majority of his life, most recently the LA Times and the NY Times, and at both agencies he covered the Justice Department. He won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Also, he is the author of the book, Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice. This article was again about the USA PATRIOT Act, and once again how it was being used by the government. The United States has been using their USA PATRIOT Act, which is meant to prevent acts of terrorism. However, they have begun to use it to convict everyday criminals, from “Drugs to Swindling,” as the title clearly states. The Justice Department said in an interview that they were “simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals -- terrorists or otherwise.” However, many Americans believe that this is another Bush-Cheney plan to expand the government’s jurisdiction.

Fourth Post

Not really sure what to blog about now that I’ve finished my outside reading book. So I guess I will just comment on another book I’ve started reading. It is called Dragon Keeper (yes I know it’s a lame title). It is set in Imperial China, during the Han dynasty. I just started it a couple days ago and so far, it is from the point of view of a slave. This young girl, Ping, is eleven was sold to the dragon keeper by her parents as a child so that they could repay a debt. She progresses into doing all her Master’s duties for him. This dragon keeper thing was established by the current emperor when he was bitten by a dragon when he was young. He had all twelve of them sent away to a magnificent, secluded palace that he was supposed to visit often. The dragon’s behavior supposedly predicted the well-being of the emperor. At the time when Ping is at the palace, there are only two dragons left, and one day one dies from grief and the Dragon Keeper, Master Lan has her pickled. The next day, she begins to befriend the other dragon and he becomes more and more healthy. In a while, the girl is ordered to go and steal booze from the emperor’s stash, but when she is looking for the kitchen, the emperor arrives for the first time in years. When he discovers that Master Lan has been neglecting his duties and pickled a dead dragon, he is furious. He has been planning to sell the remaining dragons to a poacher who will kill them for their “usefulness”. Ping decides to flee with the dragon and his mysterious stone and that’s pretty much where I am right now. So once again, there is a theme of morals. The girl is super patriotic and stealing from the emperor (wine) and pickling the dragon both pose a huge problem to her moral code. The only reason she agrees is because her master makes her and threatens her with violence and even death.

Thrid Post

I am going to continue with the theme of morals. I just finished my outside reading book and it had an amazing surprise ending. At this point, all four cardinals were dead and there was only a few minutes until the antimatter exploded the carmalengo (the man who was the pope’s assistant: in charge in between his death and the election of the new pope) had a “revelation;” in which god told him a verse of the bible. The verse: “Upon this rock, I will build my church,” is actually a riddle. St. Peter’s church wasn’t built on a rock, but Jesus’ nickname for Saint Peter was the Rock because he was his first disciple and was so devout. So when the carmalengo, Robert Langdon, Victoria, and others found the antimatter on his tomb they were overjoyed. Then, the carmalengo was going to bring the antimatter up in the helicopter into the sky to explode. But Robert Langdon jumped in thinking that they would throw it out, but the carmalengo had other plans. He left Langdon in the copter with the antimatter locked inside, so Langdon ditched and landed in the Tames river. When he came to, he saw a video of the carmalengo’s confession to being Janus, the master-mind behind all the recent atrocities. The carmalengo’s reasons were to make people devout again. However, in the process, he murdered the pope, who he had thought broke his vow of celibacy. This wasn’t true, due to science, he was able to have a child with a nun, without breaking his vow, and his child was the carmalengo, though he never knew. So then the carmalengo burned himself alive. The moral issue was how the carmalengo killed the pope, his “adoptive” father, and real father, because he didn’t hear the pope out: The pope had told the carmalengo that he was his son, but in his haste, the carmalengo didn’t listen to the pope’s explanation.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Post 2

This post is again about morals and doing the right thing. I am quite frankly not surprised that this came up again because there are so many controversial huge decisions being made. This example comes later in the book when the head of security at Vatican City is confronted with a huge conundrum; he has antimatter inside the Vatican somewhere which will detonate in 4 hours and destroy the entire country and some of surrounding Rome. On top of that, it is the night that the cardinals elect the new Pope and the 4 most favored cardinals to become the next pope were kidnapped by the Illuminati. He has to make a hard decision on whether to try and capture the Hassassin and attempt to save the four Preferiti or save the Vatican and the other 161 cardinals and try to find the Antimatter. He initially goes with the latter because finding the killer is too far-fetched because they would have to station Swiss Guards at every church in Rome. However, when the protagonist Robert Langdon, a famous symboligist, code cracker and art-lover, discovers where each cardinal will be murdered, the head of security changes his mind, hoping the Hassassin will solve all their problems. After continuing my reading, I think that morality is defiantly a theme in the novel. Therefore, I stick with my prior conclusion: morality has been debated by the characters for a dozen or so pages, which is a large amount if you think about it. From the book, I have learned that morality is dependant on the circumstances and the individual and what options they are presented with.

Angels & Demons by Dam Brown

Post 1

This post is slightly late, but I am using a homework pass, so it's all good. Because I haven't found my uncle's manuscript yet, I am reading the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. The book is very captivating because it is so dramatic. It contains murder, kidnapping, bomb-threats, ancient cults, symbology, codes, even religion. I am thoroughly engrossed. One theme of the book however, is morality and doing the right thing. For example, in the beginning of the novel, an accomplished scientist has just been murdered by a satanic group (Illuminati=anti-god no devil worship) and branded with their sacred ambigram*. They do this because he has just discovered antimatter, a high energy substance that vaporizes all mater within a certain range, depending on its size. When his daughter returns, she and the director of the institute have a long argument on whether they should call the police about the murder or if they should try to solve the problem themselves and call later. The argument progresses into a quarrel over morals. So far in the novel, morality has been debated by the characters for a dozen or so pages, which is a large amount if you think about it. From the book, I have learned that morality is dependant on the circumstances and the individual and what options they are presented with.

* A word/ symbol that that forms the same word/symbol no matter which way you read it.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Seventh Post

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJsPHiQlgYvAsrHz9mvHJlezQJLwD943NRKO3

I read an article about the infamous “Joe the Plumber.” This article was about Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher and his endorsement (that suddenly has value??) for John McCain. This endorsement (which should be completely worthless), was made Tuesday, October 28, 2008, at a rally. The main reasons Joe endorsed McCain were taxes, and foreign affairs. On the subject of taxes, his facts were downright terrible, he thought that his taxes would increase dramatically under Obama’s administration, but in actuality, the opposite is true. His taxes would decrease dramatically because he makes less than 250,000 dollars a year. Also, when addressed at a rally for McCain, he stated that he feared that Obama would turn the U.S. into a socialist country. Really, what’s so bad with that?!! If you take a look at all the socialist countries in the world, most of them are better off than we are right now, for example, Portugal, India and Egypt. Then when McCain asked him if he would feel like Israel was doomed to be destroyed if Obama was president, he said that he would have to agree and yes. Personally, I think that if our country is full of people like this and they end up affecting the direction our country goes, then we deserve to have, 4 more years of Bush like policies. Just kidding I would move to Canada, or maybe France, anyway, no we need John McCain like a hole in our head.

Sixth Post

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/baseball-insider/2008/10/rays_in_four_yeah_you_heard_me.html

I read an article about the World Series. It was written in the Washington Post by Dave Sheinin. It was about how the American League is sooo much better than the National League, "it's rediculous." He also predicted that the Tampa Bay Rays will beat the Philidelphia Philles in four games, which is a sweep. He pointed out that if you look at the interleague play this year, the American League teams are ahead, 149 to 103. That is a .591 reccord, which would have gotten a team a playoff birth in pretty much every division except three. And in those three they would have clinched a wild card. He also explained that even though the Phillies have good players, like Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels. However, He believes that all the Rays have to do is to have their starter pitch well, and then they can pitch around Howard. Also, if they Rays can win game one, in which they play Cole Hamels (3-0, 1.23 ERA in playoffs), they can destroy the Phillies. And though Cole Hamels is very good, he’s been pitching against the National League, so it doesn’t say much.

Fifth Post

I am deeply sorry if I am disappointing all my diligent readers with the sudden change of subject, but I felt that I was beginning to become slightly repetitive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/us/politics/15poll.html?hp

I read an article about the recent polls for the general election. This article in the New York Times gave Obama a fourteen point lead over McCain, 53 to 39.It also pointed out how McCain’s recent attacks on Obama and his campaign are not helping him either. Six out of ten voters aid that they think McCain has spent too much time attacking Obama, and not enough explaining his policies and plans for the presidency. Conversely, six out of ten voters think Obama has spent more time explaining his plans for when he takes office, than attacking McCain. Another reason for Obama’s lead, the New York Times says is that voters are disappointed with McCain’s choice of Sarah Pailin as a running mate, and I can’t say that I don’t agree that she was a terrible choice. Entering the last three weeks before the election, Obama is enjoying large margins nationally, and huge margin in swing states. However, historically, margins like these tend to narrow in the closing weeks. Also, when the poll included Ralph Nader(Independent) and Bob Barr(Libertarian), Obama’s lead was decreased by two points. And with two wars and a failing economy (including a credit crunch, housing crisis, and an employment crisis), eight out of ten Americans don’t trust the government to do the right thing. So McCain has to try to win the election and keep the White House in Republican hands with his party leader’s rating below 24%, nearing a historic low. In the end, I will take any slip up or mistake McCain makes, as long as it secures Obama’s victory and ensures that we won’t have four to eight more years of George Bush policies.

NOTE

I have no idea why all the articles on the news bar on the bottom of my page are about cell phones, like the iPhone, and Google. Just in case you were wondering.

Fourth Post

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/08/vodafonegroup.telecoms
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847791,00.html?imw=Y

I read a couple articles about the newly leaked BlackBerry Storm. It is very similar to the iPhone as it has a touch screen, surfs the internet, has an apps store, and can play music. However there are a few fundamental differences between the two phones. First of all, the iPhone has the most user friendly music playing application. Also, it has the most realistic and the best looking internet browsing application. On the other hand, the Storm’s strengths are opposite to the iPhone’s weakness. For example the iPhone’s greatest flaw according to most people is that it is difficult to text because you are tapping “imaginary buttons.” Therefore, you can’t feel what you’re typing or where your fingers are. However, the Storm still has those “imaginary buttons,” but they have a clicking feature that makes it feel like you’re typing on actual buttons. Also, you can do anything in the landscape mode, while with the iPhone it only works in certain instances. Also, it is approximately the same size as the iPhone, and the screen is about the same resolution. However, its camera is of a higher quality, and it can take videos, a feature which is strangely lacking in the iPhone. In the end however, I still believe the iPhone will be the most popular, but only just over the Storm, and trailing far behind is the G1 and others. Unless, the iPhone makes some major improvements, the Storm has a definite chance of overtaking it. Personally, when the Storm comes out this winter, I will seriously consider it while my family switches carriers.

Third Post

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210604791

I read an article about Microsoft trying to catch Google in the search engine department. They had attempted to buy Yahoo early this year, but that backfired on them, as Google ended up getting that deal, turning their percentage of the market to 82.5%. Microsoft, on the other hand owns only a measly .9% of the search engine market. However, Microsoft did buyout Fast Search & Transfer for 1.3 billion dollars, and made a deal with Powerset that was worth 100 million dollars. Microsoft thinks they have a very good chance at catching if not passing Google. They say that’s because nobody (even Google) has perfected their search engines yet. For example when you search something on Google, what you’re looking for doesn’t always come up on the first, second or third page, and sometimes even at all. That is what Microsoft is counting on, that they will be able to create a better search engine than Google, and that people will start using that as their home page. As an attempt at this they are trying out Powerset’s method of interpreting the phrases using linguistics. Personally, I don’t think it will make that much of a difference if Microsoft gets a more accurate search engine. Google has become the popular thing and the name for searching something (i.e. “Google it”). Also, I think Microsoft should be content with the things they have and improve those not try to steal Google’s users. For example, they have the Mac, iTunes, and the iPhone, which is being copied by many other companies; they should improve on those and work on a search engine next.

Second Post

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2649

I read an article about T-Mobile's new iPhone like cell phone. It was called the T-Mobile G1 and it will run Android OS by Windows. It is meant to compete with the iPhone and other phones like it. It has many advantages to the iPhone. However, the iPhone’s appearance is much better. For example comparing them side by side, the iPhone is sleek, while the G1 is bulky and robust. Plus, the iPhone has all the luxuries of an iPod. In addition, it is popular. Therefore, the G1 might be a wonderful cell phone, but like its predecessors like the voyager and the glide, it will never top the iPhone because the iPhone is popular and “cool.” Plus the iPhone has more revolutionary and convenient technologies like the touch screen features and the tilt ability. Plus, the availability of upgrades and applications like games and other things is much higher. On the other hand, the Q1 is much harder to navigate because it involves a roller ball and a keyboard. Plus, the Q1’s operating system, Android OS, is more “old fashioned,” and the phone itself appears behind the times. While just looking at the iPhone or watching the commercial makes you want to buy one because it looks so futuristic.

First Post

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/17/ike.recovery.starbucks/index.html

I read an article about the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. It was written by Jason Hanna, and I found it in the U.S. section on CNN.com. I found this article very interesting because I thought that it was odd that all the Starbucks could get there power back, but not all the homes. I also thought it was cool how the hurricane was bringing people together and people who see each other many times a week are finally introducing each other and talking together. One other thing I found interesting was that Hurricane Ike caused so much damage even though it was a category four hurricane and didn’t hit Houston directly. In addition I thought that it was interesting that all the coffee shop workers at Starbucks wanted to come back and work right after the Hurricane. Also I found it interesting that these two coffee shops picked up additional baristas from other surrounding Starbucks’s that haven’t reopened yet. Plus, I thought it was cool that they had internet access, which attracted more customers. Finally, I thought that was nice that many of the customers that would usually not talk to each other were sharing information about where to find help. For example, they would tell each other where they could find an extra generator, where to find milk, eggs, and things like that.